


Avatar. The Legend of Lexa

by boredandsleepy4



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2019-11-01 13:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17867867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredandsleepy4/pseuds/boredandsleepy4
Summary: Lexa is the Avatar after Korra died. She was supposed to begin her training in all elements when she was sixteen, but she left. The world was at peace and she didn't think she was needed. Years have passed and a new threat has appeared. The Water Tribe of the North is being blamed for the resurfaced and training of Bloodbenders, and it's up to their Princess to prove the world wrong and bring justice to the world.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if this has ever been done before (it would be weird if it hand't), but I've been keeping this idea in my head for quite some time and I finally brought myself to try and write it. I must say, this is the first time I've ever written anything other than one-shots, so I don't know how it will turn out. I'm posting the Prologue so maybe I'll feel forced to go on writing and not leave it hidden deep in a digital drawer. If anyone ever reads it, hope you like it.

_Book One: Fire_

The Spirit Oasis had always been her favorite spot in the world. Growing up a Princess could get overwhelming at times, so she would go there looking for a place to hide. When she got older, her hiding spot turned into her meditation area. Although, truth be told, she only meditated when she needed to hide. From the world, from her duties, from her parents. And now, from her attackers.

Clarke just needed to think. But not about what was happening now. Because if she started thinking about not knowing whether her parents made it out in time or not, she could lose her mind. And she really needed her mind. The facts are clear: one, Bloodbending is punished (and rightfully so); two, someone is teaching it; three, the Northern Tribe is being accused of being that someone; four, her tribe is not guilty.

She could understand where it was coming from. Not that long ago, in times of Avatar Korra, there was a whole anti-bending movement at the same time Bloodbenders were a thing. A really dangerous thing. And before that, when Avatar Aang disappeared, there was a war that lasted for a century. So it is only natural that if any of those scenarios were to be repeated, people would get a little tense. And it’s not just one, but the both of them, that are happening right now.

The next Avatar was supposed to be an Earth Bender. And they were reportedly found. All Avatars start their training at the age of sixteen, and that’s when they are introduced to the world. But that was eight years ago. So, yes, the Aang situation is happening. And they were being accused of Blood Bending, so that checks the Korra situation too.

Which is why she gets the reaction that’s coming from the rest of the world. Bloodbending is only possible for Waterbenders, and the Northern Tribe was a bit secluded from the Republic, so it is only fair that people would point fingers. But she never thought they would act on it so soon.

That’s how she found herself hiding away until Lincoln could get her and leave. Any Water Bender could easily escape the city without leaving a trail, but apparently she’s not. After her whole life training with the best of masters, she’s still pretty terrible at it and she can only do well one thing: healing. Which is why her parents forced her to have a bodyguard chosen by her. So of course she picked Lincoln. He’s strong, he’s not a pain in the ass and he is constantly getting hurt, making her feel useful. She really hopes he hasn’t gotten hurt now because it would really be a terrible time to need hea-

“What are you mumbling now?” Interrupted Lincoln. She really didn’t know she was mumbling. “It doesn’t matter. We need to leave.” 

“You keep me waiting and now you’re in a hurry. What took you so long? Do you know anything about my parents?”

“I had some encounters on my way here, and don’t worry, no one is hurt. Not severely at least, just some ice head bumps.” He looked relieved that things didn’t come down to more serious stuff. He was big, and really skilled at fighting, but he would never want to hurt anyone if it could be avoided. Then his expression changed. “Your parents... I saw them on my way here.” He must’ve seen the terror in Clarke’s face, because he continued right away. “They’re okay, don’t worry. They looked fine, but it looked like they were being imprisoned.”

She sighed deeply. Her parents were okay, but only for now. The only thing that could save them would be to find the true culprits and to bring them to justice. And that is what she’s going to do. Well, what _they_ are going to do.

“So, what are we waiting for? Can you get us out of here so we can get started? Our Tribe isn’t going to save itself”

* * *

 

Ever since she didn’t accept her identity as the Avatar, the dense forests in the north west of the United Republic of Nations have been her home. It was always so full of life, so she didn’t have to think about hers. And there was a town near enough if she ever needed anything, but it wasn’t often the case. Although, today, it was.

Lexa had gone to the market after months without setting foot into town, expecting to hear the usual conversations. Politics, her disappearance, the latest pro-bending match. She kind of got used to ignore the second one. Yes, she is the Avatar, or so she was told by some really old people who she swears she had never seen in her life. But the world didn’t need an Avatar right now, not really. And she wasn’t going to be some prize that can be shown around every city in the world in hopes that she would _inspire_ people. So she ran. She got away. And until today, everything had been fine, great even. 

That’s why she couldn’t understand how she missed that in the last few months, not only there has been reports of Bloodbending, but also the Northern Tribe was blamed, attacked and captured. That’s what everyone was talking about, and it didn’t surprise her. The Northern Water Tribe had never succumbed to any invasion or attack. King Jacob and Queen Abigail had been imprisoned. And the Princess was nowhere to be found. Everything sounded sketchy. The Northern Tribe are honorable warriors and healers, how could they go from that to Bloodbenders? 

But what could she do? Even if she accepted her duties or her role as the Avatar, she still has _everything_ to learn. And after almost eight years disappeared, she didn’t have the people of the nations on her side. This was too much of a burden to put on her shoulders. So she went back to the forest.

She was juggling rocks, a habit she picked up whenever she didn’t want to think about something, when she felt a perturbance in the soil beneath her. She looked back to see what or who was the cause when she saw Chandie. From the moment she entered that forest so many years ago, the fox antelope have never left her side. It was bigger than any other fox she had ever seen, even bigger than antelopes. It only took Lexa a couple of days before she put her a name, inspired by her horns shaped like a chandelier. Chandie always seemed to know when she was having a bad day and she would stick around longer on those occasions.

“Hey, you. No need to sneak up on me like that.” Chandie lowered her head to rub on Lexa’s shoulder. “Do you think we could live here forever?” A grunt. “I know you’ve always lived here. Whatever, you know what I meant. Well, I _think_ you know what I meant.” Lexa sighed.

Leaving aside the town’s merchants, Chandie was the only living being that she would talk to. It was almost as if she could answer her. And sometimes, when Lexa was particularly moody, she swears it seemed Chandie was cursing at her.

The antelope suddenly raised her head and fixed her stare at somewhere in the forest. Chandie started walking in that direction, stopping midway to look back at Lexa.

“Really? Now _I_ have to be the one to follow _you_? I didn’t even hear anything.” That. That was the stare that _almost_ looked as if Chandie was cursing at all her past lives. “Fine.”

They started walking and after some time she realized they were heading towards the river. The rapids, full of sharp rocks, part of the river. When they were getting close, she started seeing pieces of wood painted in white and blue scattered across the ground.

“What happened here, Chandie?” She whispered. The antelope turned her head, pointing her horns to the area near the river. It didn’t take her long to see that, closer to the water, there was also a big man and a blonde woman dressed in weird clothes and laying there, face down.

Unconscious. Or dead.


	2. Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what's normal in this site for these kind of stories, but having more than twenty people subscribed to this with just a tiny prologue posted seemed pretty amazing to me, so it got me motivated to squeeze the time to have an update with Clarke and Lincoln's escape. Hope you enjoy!

“Stick close to me.” Lincoln started making a passage through the snow and ice. Clarke could only follow, trying not to do anything that could bring down the tunnel. After some time, he stopped. “We’re close to the outside. I tried to get us to a more unoccupied area, but we still need to get a boat. Be careful, and if we encounter enemies, stay away.” 

“I’m not completely useless, you know.” Lincoln raised an eyebrow at her. “Fine. But someday I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Good luck with that.” Yeah, she was going to wipe that smile off his face one day. “Let’s go.”

Lincoln planted his left foot in front of him, moved the rest of his body back and rapidly pushed his arms forward, sending the snow in front of him flying and opening the self-made tunnel. When they got outside, Lincoln made a swift move and the tunnel collapsed, erasing their tracks.

Clarke looked around, trying to determine where they were. She realized they were outside the city, close to the outer wall that connected with the sea. They walked until they reached the cliff made of snow, and lowered themselves on the ground to avoid being spotted.

There were many ships of all kinds and the wall was intact except for a door-like hole of a great size, making them think their attackers had help from some pretty powerful Waterbenders. It was disturbing to see their home on that state. Houses brought down, some ships wrecked, none of their people on the streets. It would take so much work to put everything how It used to be. Clarke shook her head, because now wasn’t the time to be thinking in how to rebuild. They needed to come up with a plan to get a small boat or canoe.

They kept exploring from above across the length of the cliff, trying to find a way to escape without risking their lives. Well, without risking their lives _too much_. They were now watching over an almost empty part of the city, where the market used to be. Many canals lead to that area, and there were some canoes still left. Four soldiers were taking away food and supplies and carrying it to one of the canoes.

“We need to take that canoe. It already has enough for the both of us for at least a week.” Lincoln stared down where the soldiers were talking, a worried look on his eyes. “But even if we managed to get rid of them, we would never manage to cross the wall without being spotted.”

They didn’t have much time to think of something before the soldiers emptied the place and left with their provisions. Then Clarke remembered something.

“We don’t need to cross the wall, Lincoln. We just need to not be seen. I think I have a plan.”

* * *

Lincoln bended the snow, descending the cliff swiftly with Clarke on his back. They were almost down when the soldiers noticed them, so Lincoln increased the speed. He managed to dodge a fire ball aimed at them, and as soon as they landed on the ground Clarke let go of him and saw how Lincoln threw himself towards the soldiers. Three of them were Firebenders while the other one was a Waterbender. He must have been one of the people who helped with the massive wall. 

They started fighting. Lincoln truly was a great warrior, because even if it was four against one it almost seemed evenly-matched. He used the snow to make thick shields whenever the Firebenders attacked, and he focused on trying to knock out the Waterbender. Clarke felt useless right now, and she didn’t know what could she do while she watched Lincoln avoiding attack after attack and managing to hit back at times. The Waterbender must have been overconfident, because one of those times Lincoln got him to fall down and he took that chance to throw an ice ball at him, knocking him unconscious.

Now there were three left, and they were in clear disadvantage. They were average Firebenders fighting a really good Waterbender in a place entirely made out of water. Lincoln knew how to use smartly the terrain and the canals, and he kept extinguishing every fire being thrown at him. He sent a wave of snow from his feet, throwing off balance two of the soldiers. He was about to knock them unconscious too when Clarke noticed the third one on the side, ready to throw a fireball using his leg. She acted instinctively and hit his foot with a water whip, not powerful enough to hurt him but just enough to destabilize him. Lincoln saw this and finished the job with the three soldiers on the ground. 

“Thanks for that. I wouldn’t have been able to avoid it.” Then he smiled. “Although, I’m surprise _that_ was enough to make him fall. It looked more like a string than a whip.”

“Keep laughing at my abilities and I won’t save you next time.” He raised his hands in defeat. “We better hurry or you might have to fight more people.”

They got in the canoe and instead of moving it across the canals and in the direction of the wall, they steered it towards the cliff they came from. When the canal was over, Lincoln melted the snow and ice to make his own way and continued doing so until they reached the base of the cliff. Lincoln stopped to face Clarke.

“Now comes the difficult part of your plan. I’m going to make a tunnel melting the snow so we can advance with the canoe, but you need to be able to cover our tracks throwing snow as we pass by.”

“I think I can handle it.” She really didn’t know if she could, but she had to. “The hard part is that once I do that, we will be surrounded by darkness until you can get us to the outside.” This plan had many flaws. If they got disoriented, they could get trap under tonnes and tonnes of ice and snow, probably too tired to be able to bend their way out. If they weren’t careful, those same tonnes of ice and snow could fall on them. If they managed to get out but it was near the enemy’s ships, they would get caught. “It’s not ideal, but we don’t have a choice. You ready, big man?”

“Bring it on.” Whether it was confidence or cockiness, it was appreciated in that moment. 

They sat down so they would occupy less space. Lincoln started melting a big enough hole in the cliff so the canoe could fit, and headed in. When they were inside, Lincoln stopped making the tunnel and turned back. He froze the canal they had created so soldiers wouldn’t think someone got away through the snow, and he continued with the passage.

“Do it now, Clarke.”

She concentrated, and after exhaling and inhaling she raised her arms and lowered them fiercely. The snow before them fell rapidly, shaking the canoe and leaving them in complete blackness. For a moment, Clarke thought they were going to be buried in snow, but the tremor stopped. She let out a heavy breath she didn’t know she was still holding.

They continued their way for a while, the only sounds coming from the snow melting and the canoe moving across the water. Neither of them dared to speak, as if their voices could bring the whole tunnel down. The progress was slow, and it was only becoming slower with Lincoln getting tired. She couldn’t really blame him. The day had been long, and he had to fight many people in addition to save her ass.

Clarke started helping in moving the canoe. Lincoln must have noticed, because he stopped doing it, now focusing only in making the tunnel. They were advancing slower now due to Clarke’s lack of experience, but at least now Lincoln could rest a little.

Clarke doesn’t know how much time have passed, but even though it was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing, it was starting to feel claustrophobic. They were now breathing heavy because of the effort, and they didn’t know for how long they could keep going. Clarke was on the verge of giving up, thinking they must have gone the wrong way and would never make it out, when a sudden burst of orange light was revealed by Lincoln. They were blinded by it at first, after so long in the dark. It didn’t take more than a few moments before their eyes adjusted and they quickly exited the tunnel and instantly collapsed on the canoe. Lincoln was the first to speak.

“Was I the only one thinking you were going to get us killed?” He was now breathing regularly.

“I thought _you_ were the one that was going to get us killed. It was my plan, but the tunnel making was _all_ yours.” Clarke scanned their surroundings. The sun was setting, and they had come out facing almost exactly that way, so they must have navigated to the west side of the North Pole, far away from the city’s entrance. It was a long way, and now it made sense how long they’ve been underground. Or should she say ‘underice’? Tiredness was getting to her. “It’s going to be dark in a moment, I don’t think we should head to the continent until we rest.”

“Agreed. I don’t want to risk arriving to a village by accident and getting arrested. We should be able to hide easily around here once it’s dark.”

This night wasn’t going to be comfortable. After discussing their options, it was clear they couldn’t get off the boat and go inland because the danger of being discovered was too big. They couldn’t sail away, and they couldn’t go inland, so that only left them with one option. They had to sleep on the canoe. They also couldn’t risk being seen, so they got the boat close to an ice cliff to have a surface covering them and Lincoln bended a little ice barrier around that area. That way, if someone approached that zone, they still wouldn’t notice them.

They decided they should eat something before going to sleep since they needed all the strength they could get for tomorrow. Clarke mentally thanked the merchant that must have brought these fruits from the continent before the attack, because she didn’t know how much she needed them until she took the first bite. When she was satisfied, she internally debated whether to eat her last piece or save it for another time, and with a sigh Clarke concluded now wasn’t the time to be greedy and she put it away.

“I’m going to call it a day.” Lincoln half laid uncomfortably on his side of the canoe. “Good night, Princess.”

It totally was forbidden to call her that, but given how he pretty much saved her today, she was going to let it slip.

“Good night.”

Clarke got on her back, looking at the night’s sky. During the day, it had been easy to avoid thinking about everything that was going on and to focus on what they had to do. But now, the only thing she could hear besides Lincoln’s soft breaths and the babbling of the water, was her thoughts. She couldn’t stop thinking about how her life had changed in a moment. How her parents rushed her out through a secret passage. How that was the last time she saw them. How she didn’t know when will be the next time she sees them. _If_ she sees them. How she had to run away from her own home.

Clarke felt a single tear escaping her eye, and she forced it to be the last. She didn’t know how she was going to save her people, but she knew that she had to. Clarke now remembered her father’s answer whenever she asked him how did he always know what was best. _“I don’t. I just hope fate puts me in a good path, and I make it work”_.

Clarke looked at the stars, and she concentrated in one in particular that seemed to shine the brightest. Clarke wasn’t one to believe in fate, but in that moment she really wished it put her in a good path. And she hoped that however hard or strange that path is, she could make it work.

* * *

They woke up with the firsts rays of the morning sun. Rested wouldn’t be the word they would use to describe how they felt right now, but it was as close as they could get given how they previous day had gone.

Clarke eyed that piece of fruit she had saved the night before and reached for it, but before she could grab it Lincoln stopped her.

“We don’t know when will we be able to get more supplies.” He almost sounded apologetic. “We should eat only when it’s truly necessary.” Clarke stared down at the fruit. “At least for now.”

“You heard him, we can’t have our moment yet.” Was she really talking to a piece of fruit? She needed to get a grip on reality. “Anyways, we should go to the continent right? It should be easy enough to hide in the Earth Kingdom until we come up with a plan of action.”

“We need to get to an unpopulated area. That would be easier if we had a map, but since we don’t, we have to be very careful. If we see land or a ship, we take a detour to make sure it’s safe.”

Lincoln took down the barrier from last night and they started to sail. Being in the open sea on a canoe wasn’t the best feeling in the world, and they could feel every agitation in the water that caused a perturbance on their bending. Well, Lincoln’s bending. Clarke liked to think she was helping, but it was more for moral support and so she wouldn’t feel useless. She almost felt bad for wishing Lincoln was injured right now just so she could heal something.

It must have been noon when they saw the firsts signs of land. First they saw treetops. Then their hearts sunk when they saw some faraway smoke. Populated land. 

“Detour it is…” It may have sounded irritated, but Clarke really wanted to get off this canoe. Lincoln half smiled at her, obviously feeling the same.

They decided to head west to try and see if there was a shore safe for docking. As they sailed away, they saw the smoke disappearing, getting their hopes up about finding somewhere to get off the canoe. When they considered they were far enough, they started to get closer to shore. They could see what seemed to be a pretty big forest, a river emerging from the side, then a beach and then… a ship.

“Oh, come on!” This time it was Lincoln the one exasperated. Clarke was surprised.

“It could be a merchant’s. Maybe it’s not dangerous.”

“We should get going” Lincoln started to move the canoe the opposite direction.

“Are we really running away from some traders?”

“They’re not merchants, Clarke.” Lincoln sounded sure.

“How can you kn-“ Clarke was interrupted when Lincoln pushed her down right before a fire ball flew past them.

“Because they’re pirates.”

They started to head east where they came from to get away from the ship. Their canoe moving with one and a half benders wasn’t a match to their propelled ship, and they were getting close. They had no idea why those traffickers would attack a random canoe in the sea, but they weren’t planning on sticking around to find out.

“There, Lincoln! The river! They won’t be able to pass through!”

Instead of answering, Lincoln immediately changed their course and headed to where Clarke had pointed. The ship was closing in on them, and Clarke wasn’t sure they would be able to get to the river before they caught up to them. Luckily for Clarke and Lincoln, the ship only seemed to have one bender on board and not a very capable one, so there weren’t many fire jets truly threatening their lives. But if they got close enough, they would probably be done for.

The adrenaline must have kick in, because they seem to be going faster now. The ship stopped in its tracks as they were entering the river, realizing there was nothing they could do. Once they felt safe enough, they stopped to catch their breaths, only to find out the canoe was still moving, and not in a slow pace.

“Really? Rapids?” Clarke wasn’t one to believe in fate, but right now she could kick it in the butt. ”Could anything else go wrong at this point?”

Lincoln was trying to control de canoe with little success, and just as Clarke was trying to help, they saw big, pointy rocks surfacing from the river.

“At this point, I don’t even know why you keep talking Clarke.”

They were barely avoiding the rocks when one particular zig zag movement made the canoe sway dangerously. They managed to stabilize it, but they watched as their provisions flew overboard. They subconsciously tried to reach to them, Clarke eyeing the piece of fruit she had saved for what now seemed too long. Distracted for just a moment by their food literally flying away, they lost concentration on their task at hand: _not hitting the rocks_. When they turned to their front again, it was a second too late.

The canoe hit a big stone. Clarke heard the wood shattering and felt the cold water soak her. Lincoln grabbed her by the arm, trying to stay close, but the current only seemed to be getting stronger. 

Clarke felt something hit her head and then it came a sharp pain. After the excruciatingly long time they had spent surrounded by darkness when they were running away in that tunnel, she thought she was done with it. But when her vision started to blur, getting blacker by the moment, she didn’t even feel the river pushing her or where the rock had hit her.

So she embraced the darkness.

* * *

Clarke felt the light burning past her eyelids, but she was having a hard time opening her eyes. The sharp pain was back, and not only on the back of her head. Most of her body hurt right now. She went to touch her scalp to see the seriousness of the wound when she noticed she couldn’t move her arms. Shocked, Clarke managed to open her eyes only to find out she was laying on the ground with her extremities bounded by what appeared to be some pretty hard rocks. _An Earthbender_. Clarke looked around finding Lincoln still knocked out and in a similar predicament. And then she noticed another figure, a woman keeping her distance. When she saw that she was awake, the woman spoke.

“Sorry, I couldn’t take any chances.” 

Clarke remembered once again her father’s words and almost laughed out loud. She didn’t know how could she make _this_ , whatever this is, work. And she _really_ wanted to kick fate in the face right now.


	3. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke and Lincoln wake up restrained and with a very inquiring woman trying to find out the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only on Chapter 3 and I'm already being so late to uptade. I don't think you want to read my excuses but if that is the case, leave a comment for future references.
> 
> Also, I realized I haven't said some things. First, this story doesn't have a beta (obviously), so any mistakes are my own. Second, English is not my first language so if said mistakes are about misusing a word or an expression, feel free to tell me so that I can learn. Third and last, I haven't watched Avatar in some time and I try to google stuff as much as I can, but at some point there will probably be some history mistakes. Sorry.
> 
> And if you got to the end of this note, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

The air was filled with tension. Clarke heard Lincoln stirring, slowly regaining consciousness and going through the same process she had just some minutes ago. Minutes that had felt like hours because the unknown girl didn’t say anything else while Clarke watched her, mentally debating whether it was a good idea to speak at all. When Lincoln stopped trying to get rid of his bounds, he too fixed his stare at the stranger.

“Is this how you usually help people that’s just been in a shipwreck?” Lincoln was trying to sound strong, but Clarke could hear pain in his voice. Turns out she was going to be useful after all, that is if they manage to break free.

“Forgive my manners. I’m not used to encountering many people around here.” She sounded almost too soft. “I can get a little wary of strangers arriving on weird boats and dressed in clothes I’ve never seen before.”

Clarke watched the girl, sitting on a big rock and fidgeting with a smaller one in her hand. Lincoln was about to talk, and judging by the look on his face it wasn’t going to be nice, so Clarke decided to step in.

“We understand.” She said that more to her companion than the woman. “We are just some merchants. We crossed paths with pirates and in our escape we ended up trapped in those rapids.” That was close enough to the truth. “We lost everything.”

The girl was staring at her, looking her in the eye. Clarke couldn’t decipher whether she was convinced or not, and the stranger seemed to be searching in her eyes for something. If there was a good time for putting on a poker face, Clarke thought this should be it.

“What are your names?” She was asking Clarke directly.

Clarke thought for a second about lying about that, but, for some reason, she didn’t want to. She told herself it was because her name was the only thing she had left, and that outside the Northern Water Tribe she was only known as the Princess so it wouldn’t be risky.

“My name’s Clarke, and my friend over there,” she gestured how little she could towards the big guy, “is Lincoln.”

“Where do you come from? Those clothes are unusual in the Republic.”

“I already told you, we’re merchants.” Clarke could feel her head pounding around the area that was still bleeding. “We come from all over.”

The girl was still staring at them, suspicion on her face. She didn’t seem satisfied by that answer, but that was everything Clarke was willing to tell her. It has barely been a day since their escape, and it already felt like they were failing at their mission. Moments passed by with not a word being spoken, and Clarke was beginning to think they were never making it out of there. Lincoln looked as though he was still trying to, unsuccessfully, break his bounds. Clarke had decided to talk to the stranger again, but before she could she saw a really big antelope approaching from behind the girl. She was in awe looking at the animal, but that turned into amusement when it got close to the woman and pushed her off the rock she was sitting on with its head.

“What the hell Chandie!” The girl looked annoyed.

“Is she really talking to a deer?” Lincoln squinted his eyes.

“Not a deer. A fox antelope.” The stranger got up to her feet, shaking the dust from her legs. “And I wouldn’t insult her again if I were you. See those really big horns? She’s not even supposed to have those, but they can hurt like hell.”

The animal got closer to Clarke and raised its leg. Clarke shut her eyes, expecting a hit anytime, but then she felt a pressure on her wrist where the rock bounds were. They didn’t break.

“I’m not releasing them already. I don’t trust them.” She was talking again to the animal, and ‘ _Chandie’_ made a sound to that and gave the bounds another hit. “You’re going to end up hurting yourself. I made those pretty hard.” Another hit. And another. “Stop!” The girl sighed. “Fine.”

She stepped strongly on the ground, making the rocks that were immobilizing them disappear into the soil. Clarke slowly got up to her feet, still with her head pounding, and watched Lincoln do the same. She quickly went to check on him, seeing bleeding wounds on his head and his left shoulder. Lincoln seemed to be examining her too, because he frowned when he looked at the area from where the pounding came from.

“I probably didn’t make the best first impression, but I can help you with the wounds.” The girl was scratching the back of her head. Clarke looked at her, noticing only now, for some reason, that she had green eyes. Or where they grey? “I have some supplies at my camp.”

“No need.” Clarke took Lincoln to the river, the one that could have gotten them killed not many moments ago. She bended some water out of it and placed it on the head wound first. The water started glowing just as the cut began to close, and she went on to do the same with the other injuries.

“Thanks.” Lincoln got up and walked to a spot of grass to sit on more comfortably.

“You’re a healer.” It wasn’t a question, nor it was an accusation. She sounded amazed. “Weird ability for a merchant.”

Clarke decided to ignore her and when she was finished with Lincoln, she started to heal herself. When she healed her head and the pounding stopped, she thought she hadn’t felt such relief in her life. She went on to sit next to Lincoln and they looked at each other, speaking without the need of any words. _Now what_. Maybe the girl could read minds, because she decided to interrupt their mental talk.

“There’s a village nearby, but it’s going to be dark soon. You wouldn’t make it in time.” They also couldn’t go to the village without disguising themselves before. The risk was too big. “You could stay with me the night, and I could help you in the morning. I’ve got a feeling this one,” she gestured to the animal, “would force me anyway.” Chandie made a sound that seemed to support that statement.

Clarke looked at Lincoln, one eyebrow raised. He took a deep breath, and nodded softly. Clarke looked at the girl and nodded too, starting to walk in her direction followed closely by Lincoln. The girl began to walk too, the antelope in front of her like it was leading the way.

“So, you’ve restrained us,” Clarke got the girl’s attention, “interrogated us, introduced us to ‘ _Chandie_ ’, released us and invited us to where you’re staying, as well as offered us help in the morning. All that in the span of, what? Less than an hour?”

“Said like that, it does sound rather strange I suppose.” She seemed to be hiding a smirk. “Although, not stranger than you two or your story.”

“Not the point I wanted to make right now.” Clarke didn’t want to go back to the questioning. “I just mean… All that, and you haven’t even told us your name yet.” She didn’t know why it was important to her, but it was. “Like, it would be nice to call you something other than ‘ _stranger_ ’ in my head, not that I think about you or anything. You know what I mean.” She realized she was beginning to rant, but she couldn’t seem to be able to stop. “It’s just, names are important. It’s easier to address someone if you know their n-." 

“Lexa.” That appeared to work, stopping the verbal vomit abruptly. “My name is Lexa.”  
  


* * *

 

The rest of the walk was made in silence. Around ten minutes may have passed before the forest became less dense, and then they arrived. It was easy to know that this was their destination, because a house clearly made using earth bending stood before them. A table, a chair and some other stuff too. It made Clarke think about the builders of their tribe, and how they could make anything she could think of out of ice. If everything wasn’t so _brown_ maybe it could have almost felt like home.

“How long have you been living here?” When Lexa had invited them to stay the night, it had sounded like they were going to a camp, but this seemed more like a permanent arrangement.

“A few years.” Clarke believed it was more than a few, but who was she to call  Lexa out on a lie if they were doing the exact same thing.

They walked around the place, Clarke stopping on a sort of desk when she noticed some small figures of different types of animals. They were a dirtlike brown. She grabbed what she recognized as a mini Chandie, looking at it up-close, marveling at all the details and softness of the surface. She noticed Lexa approaching her.

“Did you bend these?” Those figures were good even for a bender. “The details are impressive.”

“Those are made of wood, actually. So, not bended. I carved them.” When Clarke heard that, she carefully put Chandie back in its place, even though it would survive the fall without a scratch. “I suppose it’s a hobby.”

They continued the tour, Lexa explaining all the benefits of sleeping on a hard surface when Lincoln put a horrified face at the thought of years sleeping on a bed made of rock. They weren’t convinced.

It was already dark, so Lexa gave them some matches so they could light some candles inside the rock building while she made them some beds to pass the night. Before Lincoln could say anything, she spoke up.

“It’s either this flat, hard surface, or the pointy, hard surface of the ground. Your choice.” Needless to say, it was not really a choice.

When Clarke’s stomach grumbled, Lexa offered them some fruits and berries which they gratefully accepted and devoured. Clarke then remembered that piece of fruit she had saved that morning and how she saw it flying away, not mourning it anymore as she ate what looked like its twin fruit. Once their stomachs were sufficiently full, they decided to call it a night.

Lincoln was sound asleep in a matter of minutes. Clarke wished she could do the same, but even though she was really tired, she couldn’t shut her mind long enough to actually sleep. She kept thinking about her parents, her tribe, and how unpredictable the future was right now. She has only been out of the North Pole for a day and she had already depended so much on Lincoln. Dependency was something she hadn’t worried about until now. She wasn’t a skilled bender, but she wasn’t a skilled fighter either. The last time she saw that as a problem was when she thought she was a disappointment to her father, but Jake told her that those weren’t the most important abilities for a leader. Maybe it was true and her father hadn’t told her that only to comfort her, but right now she wasn’t a leader. She was an escapee.

Clarke looked around, checking if everyone was asleep before she jumped out of bed and into the woods.  
  


* * *

 

Lexa woke up when she felt movement. She then noticed Clarke was missing from her bed and instinctively got up to find her. She wasn’t around, but Lexa spotted some recent tracks headed to where she found them that afternoon. She didn’t really know why, whether it was curiosity, worry or suspicion, but she started to follow the marks.

She began to hear splashes as she got closer to the river. Walking carefully she approached the area where the noises came from, hiding behind some bushes when she saw the blonde, although at night with the moonlight the hair looked almost white. She watched her lifting the water off the river and move it around her with swift but soft moves. She then formed what appeared to be a water whip and attempted to hit a rock with it, only to end up hitting herself in the face, the water falling to her feet.

“Fuck.” She brought a hand to her cheek, where her fingers touched blood. “Useless. So useless.” She bended a small amount of water, surrounding her hand and placing it on her cheek.

Lexa saw for the third time today how the water started to glow as it healed the scratch. Growing up, she had heard many times about the healing properties of water, and how some waterbenders could use them and their knowledge of energy flows of the body to heal wounds, but it wasn’t common to see it in person.

Clarke sat on the rock she had been trying to hit only some moments ago, her head falling on her hands. Even Lexa could hear the frustrated sighs from where she was hiding. She felt as if she was intruding on something she shouldn’t have, so she decided it was better to leave. But when she tried to move from her position, she stepped on a branch causing a noisy crack. Clarke raised her head quickly, searching for the source of the sound. Lexa was already thinking of excuses as to why she was creepily hidden behind bushes when Chandie got out of the forest and approached Clarke. 

“You scared me Chandie.” If Lexa wasn’t the only one calling her that, the name was official now, right? “I hope you haven’t seen me making a fool of myself.” Clarke reached her hand to gently pet the antelope. “How can I help anyone if I can’t even make a basic offensive movement whenever I want, huh?”

She resumed her previous position, her face on her hands and hair falling from the sides. 

“I don’t want to just heal people. I want to be able to prevent them from getting hurt in the first place.” Her voice sounded small and fragile. 

Lexa didn’t believe their merchant story earlier, but her suspicions were proven right. Clarke and Lincoln were hiding something. Although, for some reason, she didn’t find herself wanting to question the girl again. She didn’t completely trust them, it would be foolish to do so, but she also didn’t think they were dangerous. Maybe it was because Chandie seemed to like Clarke, and the animal had always been a great judge of character.

It was as if the antelope could understand Clarke, because while she was still wallowing, Chandie got behind her and pushed her off the rock, similarly as she had done earlier in the day to Lexa. 

“Ouch. I’m starting to think you’re not a peaceful animal. Damn it.” She got up, standing still for a moment as if she was mentally debating about something. She must had come to a conclusion, because her face showed determination. “Fine. I’ll practice some more before heading to sleep.”

Lexa decided to leave her alone as she started to train. She didn’t think she was ready to sleep just yet, so she headed upriver to her favorite spot. The first time she discovered the waterfall was when she, ironically, almost fell down on it. Just as she was clutching a pointy rock that stood from the waterfall, she saw there was a cavern inside. This became her meditation place. Although when she came here, it was mostly to mentally argue and not so much to meditate. 

She entered the cavern and sat on her usual spot, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths. She focused on the sound of the waterfall trying to clear her mind, but her mind had another idea. She couldn’t stop thinking about the blonde and her companion, their weird clothes and their obvious lie. 

Suddenly, her mind went completely blank before she started seeing hundreds of faces still with her eyes closed. The last faces passed by her more slowly and then she recognized some of them. Those were previous Avatars. Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and then it stopped on Korra. 

“You already know who they are right? Or at least, where they come from. C’mon, those are clearly from the Pole. I would know. So that leaves us with two options: they’re from the South Pole and made one hell of a detour, or they’re from the North Pole.”

“But then that would make them criminals.” Lexa realized she didn’t want to admit it. 

“You don’t really believe that, do you? People from the Northern Tribe are a little stuck up, but they’re honorable.” 

Lexa started to see images of the city and its people. She didn’t know from which lifetime they were, but she could see fighters, and traders, and healers. 

“You can’t keep hiding, Lexa.” This time it was Aang who talked. “Looked at what happened when I ran away.”

She saw the devastation of the Air Temples, the suffering of the Earth Kingdom and the weakening of the Southern Tribe.

“Just trust your heart.” Aang disappeared.

“And master all the elements. It’s not even that hard, what are you, twenty four? Get on with it.” Korra then disappeared too, and with her, the rest of them.

Lexa opened her eyes abruptly, as if she was waking up from a nightmare. She was pretty sure it hadn’t been a dream, though. This was the first prove she had gotten about being the Avatar, and now she couldn’t lie to herself anymore. 

She had come to the cavern to clear her mind, but she wasn’t better off now, to be honest. Shaking her head as if that could help her somehow, she decided she had to go back to bed before Clarke returned. When she got there, she found Lincoln still fast asleep, and two empty beds. She crawled onto hers, closing her eyes but feeling kind of dizzy from all the information she was still processing.

Just as she was beginning to calm down and fall asleep, she felt movement. Pretending to be asleep, she heard Clarke carefully enter the building and fall on her bed with a quiet sigh. It was as if that was what Lexa needed right now, because in that moment she finally felt herself drifting off. And she knew what she wanted to do in the morning.


	4. Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been rewatching ATLA to try to regain some inspiration for this and I think it could be working. I truly hope these updates become more regular. Enjoy!

By the time Clarke woke up, all the beds were already empty. She got up from the hard bed and stretched out, hearing and feeling some cracking in her bones. She didn’t think she could sleep like that many more nights without feeling as if all of her bones were about to break. _Well, get used to it_. Being an escapee certainly didn’t come with luxuries such as a comfortable bed.

She got out of the house to find Lincoln by the fire, already arranging something to eat for breakfast. He looked in her direction and, without a word, handed her a bowl with something mashed in it. Clarke took it and looked around while finding somewhere to sit.

“I don’t know where she is.” Lincoln answered what he already knew Clarke was going to ask. “She was gone when I woke up.”

They ate in silence, Clarke not giving much thought to what she was eating. She kept thinking what could be their next steps. They just escaped their home in the last possible moment, without a plan or a course of action. She had to save her parents and her tribe, it was her duty, but she had no idea where to even begin. The only way to prove they weren’t behind the bloodbending movement was to find the true culprits, and the fact that her tribe got raided and the bloodbenders will surely continue at some point wasn’t going to be enough. They could still say that they didn’t captured them all, and probably try to force a confession out of her parents. She didn’t want to think about _how_ they would force her parents to talk.

Clarke was saved from her own thoughts by Lexa’s arrival through the woods. She was carrying some bags with things she must have gotten from the village she talked about the previous day.

“Good morning.” She left the bags on the ground and got some things from one of them. “I thought you might need some new clothes.” She showed them some pieces of green and brown fabric. They seemed comfortable and pretty similar to the ones Lexa was wearing herself.

“We could have gotten them ourselves.” Clarke spoke up. She didn’t mean to be rude, but she realized it might have sounded that way. “I mean, you didn’t need t-.”

“You couldn’t have. Not dressed like that. And that actually brings me to something I wanted to talk to you both about.” She didn’t know Lexa at all, but Clarke noticed that she seemed nervous. “I know you two aren’t merchants.”

“We already told you-.” Lincoln was the one to talk now, but Lexa quickly interrupted him.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m not going to turn you in to the authorities.” Clarke watched as Lexa closed her eyes and breathed, as if she was trying to navigate her thoughts. “I think I’m supposed to help you. I don’t know, really. It’s just something in my gut.” Clarke can see that Lexa herself is trying to understand what she’s saying. “I’ve been minding my own business, barely hearing any news from the outside world, and yesterday of all days I hear about the whole bloodbending and Northern Tribe thing, and about a Princess nowhere to be found. And later, on the same day, you two wash up right outside my camp.”

 _Fate_ , Clarke wanted to say. She looked at Lincoln, who was also looking in her direction while wearing a worried expression on his face. They both decided to not say anything yet, since the other girl was still going on with her rant.

“That can’t be a coincidence. And not only Chandie suddenly trusts you two, but the previous Avatars do too.” _What did she just say?_ ”Or at least I think they do, I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t a dream.” 

Now the look of disbelief on Clarke’s and Lincoln’s faces matched as they looked back and forth to each other and to Lexa.

“What did you just say?” It was Lincoln who put into words the exact same thoughts Clarke was having but was too shocked to articulate.

“Right… Let me start this again. My name is Lexa, and I’m the Avatar.” 

* * *

 “Last night I couldn’t fall asleep, so I went to my usual meditating spot. For the first time in these eight years, my mind truly went blank for a moment, and then I began seeing all the previous Avatars.” Lexa looked around her as if she was reliving it. “It was Korra who confirmed me where you two come from, although I guess I already knew that somehow. She also told me it was time to master all elements.” Clarke saw how Lexa shifted her eyes from her hands to her. “Aang told me I had to help you.” After a beat, Lexa’s stare went back to her own hands. “I don’t know how I could be of help, but perhaps me mastering the elements and helping you are linked. By doing one maybe we’ll stumble upon the other.”

For some seconds that felt like minutes, the only sounds that could be heard were the ones of the forest. Birds all around them going from tree to tree. The river in which Clarke and Lincoln had arrived the day before. Animals running around, probably trying to catch something to eat. The wind disturbing the leaves on every tree. These were sounds Clarke wasn’t used to hearing, and now didn’t seem like the right time to be appreciating them, but in these few moments, she didn’t find herself thinking about next steps, or possible future scenarios. It was as if what Lexa said had taken some weight off of her. 

Lincoln didn’t seem to think the same.

“Look, no offense, but we don’t know anything about you.” He got up, picking up the clothes Lexa had brought. “You even said you have to master the elements, so that means you don’t have any proof of what you are telling us.” He was talking while changing to the greenish fabrics, putting the blue ones in a bag. “Thank you for the hospitality, at least after the whole restraining us to the ground after a shipwreck thing, but we must get going now. Clarke.”

He handed the rest of the clothes to her, gesturing to the house. Clarke grabbed them, but made no effort to move at all. Something inside her was telling her they shouldn’t leave without Lexa. They didn’t even have a plan or anywhere else to go. She looked at the brunette girl, wishfully hoping she had an answer to a question she hasn’t voiced.

“Wait!” Lexa stopped Lincoln. She didn’t say anything else, but instead got closer to the fire at the center of the camp. She kneeled, took a breath and slowly put her hand into the fire, with the palm facing up. Clarke’s breathing stopped as she saw how Lexa withdrew the hand, that now had a small flame gravitating on top of it. Clarke watched the flame dancing in Lexa’s palm. The few times she had seen firebending in person, the fire was being thrown at her or her loved ones. She had never seen it looking sort of… peaceful.

Clarke looked at Lincoln, who was still frowning, and then at Lexa.

“We believe you.” They had to, right? They’ve just seen an earthbender bending fire, and having the Avatar on your side can’t be a bad thing. Standing before her was the unknown leader above all nations, the peacemaker, the one to bring balance to the world. Surely that had to make a difference in their situation.

Lexa looked up, fixing her stare at Clarke. It appeared that whatever concentration she must have been putting into just keeping the flame in her hand vanished, and Clarke watched as the fire rapidly spread throughout her arm, hissing whenever the blaze came in contact with flesh. Lincoln quickly reacted, accompanied by some curses, and threw some of his Northern Tribe clothes on top of her arm, extinguishing the fire.

“It’s alright.” The Avatar grunted, forcing her mouth to shut and trying not to scream. “I’ve just never done that before”.

Clarke saw her clutching the fabric against her arm, as if the pressure could do any good to stop the pain, but Clarke knew better. She got closer to Lexa, forcing her up and separating her hand from the burned arm.

“Lucky you, we’ve got a healer amongst us.” She examined the burned area, but she couldn’t see much with the cloth stuck to it. “We should go to the river.”

Clarke started walking with Lexa and instinctively looked behind her, expecting to see Lincoln. She had grown used to him as a prolongation of her own shadow, but this time he wasn’t following. He had his stare fixed to the ground, and Clarke couldn’t figure out what was going on inside his mind with that poker face of his. She decided to leave it alone for now, focusing on the task at hand. A task she was really good at.

* * *

“I must warn you, this is going to hurt.” Lexa seemed taken aback by it.

“I thought the healing waterbenders practice was painless.” Clarke realized she expressed herself wrong.

“Oh, it is. Well, you feel _something,_ but I wouldn’t call it pain.” Clarke would better describe it as tinkling, but she wasn’t sure the other girl would understand her. “What’s going to hurt is separating that fabric from the burned flesh. I can’t heal skin with pieces of textile in it. It could end up getting worse.” Clarke then chuckled, amused by what has just crossed her mind. “For a very skilled waterbender, Lincoln truly went primal there, throwing his clothes at you instead of, I don’t know, _some water_.” Lexa simply smiled at that, and Clarke took it as a win since her arm was probably stinging like hell.

They reached the river, and Clarke gestured Lexa to sit on a rock beside it. She went to start removing the bits of fabric from the skin, but stopped. 

“These things hurt less when the patient is distracted from the pain. How about some conversation?” Kids get distracted the most easily, not even noticing anything at all, but with adults it usually just soften the pain.

“Okay, but I don’t want to embarrass myself more than I already did by screaming mid-sentence, so you distract me with your talking.”

“Works for me. What do you want me to talk about.” Clarke instantly regretted asking her. There were many things she didn’t feel comfortable talking about with a virtual stranger right now.

“Tell me about healing. How does it work?” Clarke let go of a breathe she didn’t even know she was holding.

“Actually, your body is the one doing all the work.” Clarke cleaned her hands in the river and returned her attention to the burn. “With the waterbending we’re only accelerating its own healing mechanism.” She started to work on the wound, softly picking pieces of fabric and pulling them off slowly from the flesh. Clarke heard Lexa wince, so she continued talking. “All bodies have paths that energy follows to keep us functioning.” Another little pull. “By knowing those paths, you can redirect the energy to the desired area, concentrating it and speeding up the natural process of healing.” Only one more piece remaining. “Water is the key to all life, so it’s only logical that water would act as a catalyst. And, done! You’ve successfully survived _both_ the procedure and the theoretical class.”

“It… wasn’t as bad.” Lexa sounded surprised. Maybe Clarke had underestimated her pain tolerance, or maybe she actually a did job distracting her.

“Which one wasn’t? The procedure or the class?” Clarke joked and used the moment to take a look at the wound now that it was visible.

“Neither.”

Clarke looked up, searching for her eyes, but Lexa had her stare fixed at the river. The blonde felt the need to clear her throat.

“Anyway, now onto the practical lesson.”

She stretched her arm and placed her hand above the water flowing in the river. Almost immediately, the water surrounded it and she moved it to rest on top of the injured arm without touching it. The water started glowing and then went from encircling Clarke’s hand to surrounding the whole wounded area. Lexa let go of a sigh.

“That actually feels good. It’s not even burning anymore.”

“It won’t take much longer. Healing is quicker when the wound is treated early, and the quality of the water helps too.” She glanced at the river, with its crystal clear water.

Some moments passed in complete silence, the sound of the water flowing being the exception. It was Lexa the one to break it.

“So… About us helping each oth-“

“Stop.” Clarke cut her off. She then realized it might have sounded rude, so she continued. “I mean, not now. I’d like to have this conversation with Lincoln too. I think it’s going to take some convincing and it might be easier if it doesn’t seem like I have already made up my mind.”

“Have you?” Lexa sounded insecure.

“I don’t know.” The water in the Avatar’s arm stopped glowing and Clarke bended it back to the river. “We’re done here. Let’s head back.”

Lexa moved her now healed arm, touching with her fingers what moments ago was burnt flesh. Clarke was used to that reaction coming even from people back at home. She started walking in the direction of the camp, knowing that at some point Lexa would snap out of the amazement and catch up to her. _Three, two, one…_

“Wait up!” 

* * *

Clarke had gone inside the little house to talk to Lincoln first, so Lexa was waiting outside trying to come up with a way to express what she wanted to say. When she had tried before it didn’t come out great, resulting in trying to firebend for the very first time as a desperate way to prove her identity.

It was the riskiest one she could try to do without a master, but according to the cycle of the Avatar it should be the next element she would have to learn. She thought that now that the Avatar _powers_ , if you could even call them that, were slowly awakening, she could do something small. Holding a flame in her palm, no big deal. And it had been okay at first, but it took a lot of concentration, and she lost it. She wasn’t going to admit to herself right now _why_ she lost it, but she did.

Earth was a fixed element. It felt solid. Once you did the bending, it was going to stay that way. But fire seemed alive, and the moment she wasn’t thinking about keeping it in her palm, it began to move on its own. It felt like a really hot snake was crawling up her arm. She touched the now perfectly healed area and traced a finger alongside it.

Her train of thought was interrupted when Clarke and Lincoln came out of the little building.

“Okay. We have some questions.” It was Clarke the one doing the talking, with Lincoln right behind her and staring at Lexa in a really intimidating way.

“Go ahead.” Lexa tried to sound confident and focused on looking at Clarke instead of Lincoln.

“Why have you been missing all these years?” She was expecting this question to be asked at some point, but she didn’t think it would be now.

“When they gave me the news I was young. I know that’s when Avatar’s are supposed to start training, but…” Lexa tried to recollect her thoughts. “The truth is, I didn’t want it and I didn’t think anybody would miss me. Things had been pretty peaceful for a very long time, even while Korra’s time. Well, at least for the last part of it.”

“That brings me to the next question.” Lexa couldn’t read Clarke’s face regarding the answer she has just given, so she was at a loss as to what she was going to ask next. “Why the change of heart?”

“Do you think these are peaceful times right now?” Clarke didn’t answer. “I think the spirit of the Avatar left me alone all these years because it thought it would be best and there was no need to pressure me into anything. But this whole bloodbending thing, you two metaphorically showing up at my doorstep, and the spirit of the Avatar showing itself to me…” She looked to the ground only for a moment, before returning her eyes to Clarke. “It can’t be a coincidence. And I won’t lie to you: I would very much rather not being needed, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe all the previous Avatars are rubbing off on me subconsciously, but I have a duty to my people.”

Even when she was avoiding being the Avatar at all costs, she had to admit that whenever she went into town, she always paid attention to the conversations going on around her, trying to determine if there was anything worthy enough for her to get out of her camp and into the world. She even had to admit that if a lot of time passed between visits to the nearest village, she would come up with an excuse for needing to go. Maybe the Avatar spirit wasn’t awakening now, but it has been vigilant and quiet all along.

“I have one last question.” Clarke’s eyes seemed to harden. “Why should we trust you?”

“I could have turned you in by now if I thought you were guilty of what you’re being accused of.” That was true, but it wasn’t exactly the approach she was aiming at right now. “Forget about that. You don’t need to trust me, okay? Think about what’s best for your people. Right now, wherever you go, you are fugitives. I am not, I’m just a runaway. And I don’t think that you already have a plan, because you wouldn’t be talking to me in the first place if you did.”

Clarke turned to Lincoln, and it was as if they were having a silent conversation. Lexa didn’t know what was being _not said_ , but Lincoln’s ultimate response was a nod. She took it as a victory and tried as hard as she could not to fist bump herself.

“Now, if that really was your last question, may I ask something in return?” Clarke and Lincoln both nodded at the same time. “So, um… I’ve been pretty out of touch with the news, and as you can see I don’t have a radio or a TV around here… Could you maybe explain to me what has been going on all this time?”

Lincoln looked at her as if she was an alien.

“Are you serious? All this talk about helping and you don’t even know what is it about?” Now he seemed more annoyed than anything. Lexa could deal with annoyed far better than angry. “What do you know exactly?”

“You guys are from the Northern Tribe. You,” she pointed at Clarke, “are probably the missing Princess. Someone is practicing bloodbending. The world believes that someone is from the Northern Tribe. The North Pole was attacked.” Lexa was counting with her fingers as she talked. After completing counting with her right hand, she didn’t have anything else to say. “And that’s pretty much it.”

“Okay…” Clarke run a hand through her hair. “First order of business will be filling you in, I guess.”


	5. People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was mentally debating whether I should wait to post this at the end of the week to give me more margin to start working on the next one, but since I have a tendency to procrastinate everything, I decided to post it the minute I finished it.
> 
> Again, any mistakes are my own and maybe there are a few because I'm lazy and I don't like re-reading too much. Also, English is not my first language so feel free to tell me when something is wrong so that I can learn from it.
> 
> If you got this far, I'll leave you to it now. Enjoy.

“There has been reports all over the Republic of benders being kidnapped.” Clarke had her eyes fixed in Lexa while Lincoln described the situation. ”When they finally appear, although not many do, they can’t remember anything since the day they went missing. On top of that, those who show up can no longer bend elements.”

“Bloodbending.” The words that came out of Lexa were more like whispers.

“Precisely.” Lincoln nodded. “People always go missing one at a time, and all news were reporting that the authorities couldn’t find a pattern for the chosen victims. It has been going on for some time now, maybe a year.”

“A year?!” Lexa’s voice fell. “I’ve been oblivious to all this for a year…”

“Were you expecting some bird bringing you regular reports?” Clarke couldn’t help the roughness in her words. “You don’t even have a radio out here.” Lexa avoided her stare.

“Anyways.” Lincoln cut her off. “That’s all we know regarding the bloodbending issue. It’s not hard to imagine why the Water Tribe of the North would be the one taking the fall for it. The best waterbenders of the world come from our home, and we do not tend to mix much within the Republic.”

“But you were invaded and arrested. They wouldn’t do that without having some kind of proof or testimony to back them up.” _They can’t_ , Clarke wanted to say, _they can’t have any because we are innocent_. “The Republic’s judicial system has a process.”

“Whatever the process is, it’s failing miserably.” Clarke had managed to contain her feelings since their escape, but now that they were talking about it again all she could feel was rage. “Whatever evidence they have, it’s fake. And it’s my job to prove them wrong, to save my people.” Clarke felt a big hand on her shoulder.

“ _Our_ job. _Our_ people.” Clarke had this conversation with Lincoln before, when they were discussing whether or not to let the Avatar in on their mission. Clarke still felt like she couldn’t possibly let Lincoln take off some of the weight on her shoulders, but she wasn’t about to drive him away. She put her hand on top of his for a second before dropping it. She turned to the Avatar.

“Now you know as much as we do.” Her voice slightly softened, moving on from rage to despair. “Any ideas about where to start, Avatar Lexa?”

“I…” Lexa’s eyes seemed brighter, and Clarke found herself being disappointed when she looked at the ground instead of her. “I need a moment.” Lexa got up from a rock she was sitting on, and started to fumble with her clothes nervously. “To think. I need a moment to think. Excuse me.”

And just like that, she disappeared into the brown and green of the forest, leaving a very much confused Clarke and Lincoln behind.

“Do you think that’s how she ran away when she found out about being the Avatar?” Lincoln had his left eyebrow raised and Clarke wanted to slap him in the arm. So she did. “Hey!" 

“Eight years. She’s been missing eight years. The Avatar is our best card right now, so I don’t even want to hear a joke about her going missing again.” Then Clarke thought of something that made her half-smile. “Besides, I’m pretty sure that fox antelope would find her and bring her back in no time.”

* * *

Lexa continued walking and found herself in front of the waterfall without ever meaning to. She sat down by the shore and started throwing round stones into the water. _Avatar Lexa_. That had been the first time someone had called her by that title. She’s heard people referring to her as the Avatar, she has even said it out loud. Somehow, it felt more distant when the title wasn’t accompanying her name. She could pretend that there were two separate people: the Avatar, and Lexa.

She closed her eyes, resting her forehead in her hands. She felt a sudden current of air and a chill, making her open her eyes again. She barely managed to avoid yelping when she saw Avatar Aang in front of her, staring at her with empathy.

“The first time I thought about running away was when my friends at the Air Temple started treating me differently. In that moment, I knew something then that they didn’t: I was the same one. But they were aware of something that I wasn’t: things had changed.”

“How can you be the same one and be different at the same time?” Lexa liked Korra better. From what she got the previous night, she was a lot more direct.

“The spirit of the Avatar had always been inside of me, just like it is inside of you. I _was_ the same kid before and after finding out about my destiny. Because of that, I was refusing to accept my duties. The problem is, once you learn something, there is no way to unlearn it. You have responsibilities, but you don’t need to become a different person in order to fulfill your duty. It was in your destiny to become the Avatar, Lexa. _You_ are the only one that could be the Avatar in this lifetime, so just be you.”

The projection of Aang lost its form and got inside of her, feeling a chill again. _Be me_. She had been avoiding to be anyone for so long, even that simple task seemed complicated. She thought she had been doing just that by isolating and focusing only on herself, but all these years felt like a lie right now.

Her mind wandered off to the past, to times when she didn’t know the truth. Growing up in an orphanage sounded sad, but Lexa knew better. The people serving there had always been nice and loving, and at some point they became her family, her people. When she was old enough, she started helping taking care of the younger kids, playing with them. She would also help in the kitchen, although those times she ate more than helped. When some kid showed the ability to earthbend, she would become their master.

Lexa wondered if she was missed there, if they had been worried about her. She had been blocking her previous life from her mind for so long that she didn’t even acknowledge how sad she was the day she ran away. She felt wetness rolling down her cheeks and she quickly wiped it off, not before feeling through the earth a very distinctive presence.

“How do you always show up at the right time, Chandie?” Lexa turned her back to the water and was now facing the animal, that got closer to her and laid down, its head resting on Lexa’s lap. Even in this position, Lexa could feel the animal’s eyes fixed on her. “You are my people too, you know. Although you’re not people, so to speak.”

Then it hit her.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been helping my people.” Lexa then thought about these past years and her self isolation. “Every year that passed by with me being here, although you _are_ pretty cool, I felt like I was losing bits of myself, and since the water people arrived I’ve been feeling more… _alive_.” She was also feeling more anxious, but she guessed that was part of the whole _living_ thing. “I’ve always been the Avatar, and I’ve always been me. Being the Avatar only increases the amount of people I can help.”

Lexa stroked the animal’s head, her eyes falling on her arm. No one would have guessed that she had gotten burned that very same day if it weren’t for the fact that her clothes were ragged and with black ends on that area.

“Chandie, get off. I have an idea.”

* * *

Lexa ran back to her camp, as if the idea could disappear if she didn’t say it out loud fast enough. She realized how silly she was being a few minutes before reaching her destination, so she slowed down and tried to regain her composure.

When she arrived, she noticed that Lincoln wasn’t now the only one wearing the clothes she had brought earlier that day. Clarke was wearing some dark green pants that stayed just below her knees, and a lighter green top without sleeves. It certainly was a change from the blue and warm clothes from the North Pole, but Lexa found herself missing how those colors looked so natural on her.

Lexa was just standing there when Clarke noticed her presence and turned fully in her direction.

“Oh, hey. Listen, about earlier…” Clarke looked apologetic, and Lexa didn’t understand why, she had been the one to literally run off in the middle of a conversation. “I know we’re coming on too strong, and you can’t possibly have the answers to all of our problems. What I’m trying to say is, we’re sorry if we overwhelmed you or anything.”

“What? No, that’s not it.” Lexa sighed. “That was all me, being melodramatic because I had never heard my name next to ‘Avatar’. But listen, forget about it, I have an idea about what we should do first in order to help your Tribe.”

Lincoln, who had been standing some feet apart and mostly ignoring them seemed more interested now.

“We’re all ears.”

“Okay, it’s going to sound weird, but humor me for a moment.” Lexa extended her arm. “What do you see?”

“Nothing.” Clarke looked bored. “That’s the arm I healed earlier, so there’s nothing there. I am _that_ good.”

“Except, there is.” Lexa pointed with her hand at the burned bits of fabric. “See? The truth always leaves a trail to follow.”

“Well, I’m not following.” Lincoln’s initial interest was turning into disdain.

“They must have some evidence or testimony that incriminates your people, but we _know_ it’s fake. So, if we find out what they have against you, maybe we can track back that information. Truth always leaves a trail.” Lexa was so proud of her metaphor. “Maybe that trail leads to the one that incriminated your people, or maybe we can only find out enough to refute whatever they have. Either way, it would be a win.”

“That’s… actually a good idea.” Clarke sounded surprised, and Lexa tried to not be offended. They literally met the day before. “But how are we supposed to get that type of information?”

“The majority of the law enforcement forces are in Republic City.” It was Lincoln who answered. “So that’s where we could get it.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. We’re fugitives, we can’t be running around Republic City drawing attention to ourselves.”

“No, we can’t.” Lincoln looked at Lexa. “But you can. People there would actually welcome you, and maybe you would get special treatment. Perhaps it would go as far as to share some privileged information.”

“I’ll do whatever I can, but there’s a problem.” Lexa looked down. “I don’t think that going there right now is the best idea.”

“We can’t wait, my people are in danger! Bloodbending is a capital offense, if they decide to go on quickly with a public trial, I don’t know what…” Clarke stopped mid-sentence, not wanting to finish it.

“The first thing you two did when I told you I was the Avatar was to ask for proof. They will do the same.” Lexa felt regret for all these years wasted not learning how to bend any of the elements. “And I could demonstrate like I did for you, but I don’t think anyone would trust an Avatar who can barely keep a flame in her hand without burning herself. If we want them to tell me things, they need to think I’m a capable Avatar.”

“As much as it pains me to admit it, she’s right.” Lincoln looked at Clarke. “We will only get one shot at this, Clarke. We can’t risk it by rushing into things.” Then he turned to Lexa. “How do you suggest we find you a master?”

Clarke continued to be silent, her eyes never leaving the ground and lost in who knows what thoughts. Lexa looked at the sky that was now turning into the orange color of sunsets.

“I don’t know right now, really. But we should discuss it tomorrow morning. We should get something to eat and rest. The day has been long enough.”

The last two days of her life felt like two weeks with everything that has been going on, and she had a feeling that it was going to continue to feel that way for some time, but when she talked about resting she was mostly aiming it at Clarke. The girl must have been around her age, but there was something in her eyes, a _heaviness_ that appeared from time to time. Lexa felt responsible for part of it, for not being the Avatar she needed right now. She had a lot to learn, so many things that she would have known by now if she hadn’t avoided her fate. But the other parts, she could only guess.

“You two rest, I will make something to eat.” Lexa started cooking a soup when neither of them said anything. She tried to concentrate on that instead of the thoughts that wouldn’t leave her mind.

She always thought that her actions couldn’t possibly impact the world. Even if she was the Avatar, she was just _one_ person. But the last couple of days had proved her wrong in so many ways. Her actions had consequences, and most of them didn’t even affect her, but probably people she has never met. It was a lot of heavy weight that was being put on her shoulders.

Eventually, she managed to finish cooking without burning anything but also without succeeding in avoiding her thoughts. They ate in silence except for a few polite comments on the food and headed to bed.

Lexa closed her eyes, but she already knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get any sleep that night.

* * *

Clarke waited until the others were asleep to quietly retrieve herself from the house. She couldn’t see much, but thanks to the stars and the almost full moon, she managed to find her discarded clothes. Earlier, when she changed into the ones that Lexa had brought, she carefully folded them and put it in the same bag the new ones had been in. In the meantime, she had watched Lincoln use his to fuel the fire. “ _What? Parts of them are already black thanks to the Avatar’s firebending._ ” It was true, but even so, it didn’t sit well with her.

She was remembering how the blue and white had turned into black and then nothing at all while walking to the part of the river where their ship had wrecked only the day before. She couldn’t believe it. Two days ago she was fleeing her home. Three days ago she was joking around with Lincoln and teaching little waterbenders how to heal. Today, she was with the Avatar trying to figure out a way to save her people.

Before her mind wandered off into existential crisis territory, she began to hear the murmur of the river. She walked faster until the water came into view, flowing gently in this area, _certainly not the rapids that wrecked us not far from here_.

Clarke stopped some feet away from the water, left the bag on the ground and started digging. She didn’t know why she initially thought this would be easier, but it certainly wasn’t. There were only two things there: rocks and moist dirt. Not the best combination when you want to dig a hole deep enough to bury stuff, but she needed to do this.

“I can help you with that.”

The blonde jumped at the sound of Lexa’s voice sounding so close to her. She was so focused on her still very little hole that she didn’t hear her coming, although maybe Lexa had been very quiet. Either way, her heart was racing even after realizing there was no danger. She considered sending her back to the camp, but seeing how little progress she had made and how there was already blood underneath her nails, she decided to let it be. She stood up and gestured her to go ahead. 

Lexa strongly planted her feet on the ground. First, she took a perfect cube out of the ground. Then, she took a portion out from the bottom that was approximately the size of the bag. She asked Clarke to put the bag in the hole, which she did after some seconds tugging it. Finally, she put the cube back in its place.

If Clarke hadn’t been present for all of it, there’s no way she would’ve guessed there was something buried there. There was absolutely no mark or suspicious unevenness that could give away the secret.

With one last look at the ground, Clarke started walking back to the camp with Lexa following suit. Lexa didn’t ask Clarke about it in any moment, but Clarke still felt the need to answer the unspoken question.

“I’m not wearing those clothes again until the day my people are safe.” Her voice came out softly, the words only heard because the forest was quiet at this time of the night. “It’s a promise to my people, and a promise to myself.” 

“You didn’t have to tell me.” Clarke heard only truth in that sentence, it was as if Lexa hadn’t even wondered for a moment why Clarke would do that. She just helped her, and moved on.

“I wanted to.” She did, for more reasons that she was able to put into words, so she said the one she knew for sure. “Promises are harder to break when they’ve been said out loud.” 

Clarke saw on the corner of her eyes that Lexa had stopped in her tracks, and when she faced her she was looking at the ground with a furrowed brow. After a moment, she looked up to Clarke and stared into her blue eyes.

“As the Avatar, all people must be my people.” Clarke saw resolution in her, the same kind she felt. “I promise I will help _our_ people. And I promise I will help you.”


End file.
